Select Local Merchants

Launched as a walking-tour company in 2003, Where You Want to Be Tours features a variety of custom adventures designed to show off the beauty of San Diego to locals and tourists. Most adventures last more than two hours, so tourists have plenty of time to stop and sightsee at spots such as Balboa Park and the shores of La Jolla. Today, the company has formed a set of all new clues and hidden gems and has also expanded its offerings with bike tours of locations such as Pacific Beach and Mission Bay and scavenger hunt adventures, which present a hands-on approach to urban exploration, turning tour routes into racecourses and throwing in physical challenges, including Frisbee-throwing contests.

Even before you climb inside, the GoCar is clearly a car with a personality. The petite, three-wheeled two-seater has a hood that slightly resembles an eager-to-please smiley face, and an open top that seems custom-made for letting the breeze ruffle your hair. Then the real fun begins: built with the company's own software and a compassion for the voiceless robots of America, a talking GPS system guides two-seater GoCars through the city streets of San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon with cheerful, info-rich narration. Second only to having a knowledgeable local jog alongside your minivan, tours zip along at drivers' own pace and accommodate as many pit stops as time allows.

What’s the focus of the Coastal Tour? It depends on whom you ask. Some people enjoy its emphasis on nature, while others view it as a window into the city’s arts and culture. No matter the case, this all-encompassing jaunt unfolds inside a cozy, climate-controlled bus, with optional stops for guided walks around such places as Torrey Pines and La Jolla cove.

If you can't decide where to eat amid San Diego's wealth of top-tier restaurants, it might be time to go ahead and try them all at once. A Taste of San Diego leads culinary tours through the city's most interesting and respected foodie favorites, from the seafood of Seaport to the desserts of Eclipse Chocolate to the candy-paved sidewalk that connects the two. Other tour highlights might include gourmet olive oil from Olivetti Oil and Vinegar, the swank charm of Jsix, or Venissimo Cheese's world-renowned shrine to dairy. Tours dip into different neighborhoods depending on the theme, and the guides are always scoping out the scene to uncover hidden gems to add into the mix.

Learn San Diego's history the same way you learned to be a doctor: on a trolley and inside a seafaring tour bus. Today's Groupon expertly chaperones you through the streets and seas of San Diego with an Old Town Trolley Tour and Seal Tour from Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego, Inc. for $27 (a $54 value). The two fully narrated tours last about three and a half hours combined.

True connoisseurs can taste the character of a city in its beer, especially those cities constructed mostly from hops and barley. Sample the sudsy side of San Diego with today's Groupon: for $89, you get a luxury brewery tour for two from Brew Hop (a $190 value).